Batter's Box Interactive Magazine Batter's Box Interactive Magazine Batter's Box Interactive Magazine
This week's ESPN The Magazine is chock full of Jays coverage. Carlos Delgado gets plenty of ink for both his on-field accomplishments and off-field views. Meanwhile, Roy Halladay gets a feature-length article discussing the Jays' stunning success in rebuilding his motion -- and in getting him back on track to be the ace he's uniquely capable of being.

Outtakes

Carlos is featured as this issue's subject of Dan Patrick's Outtakes. Among Delgado's musings: among his teammates, he could only beat the Jays' catchers in a footrace; he hated The Matrix Reloaded but loved K-Pax -- yes, Patrick was duly snarky; he loved visiting Spain, Italy and Japan but hated France; he cherishes the fact that baseball has no clock; and he capped the interview with the following exchange:

DP: Describe heaven.
CD: I wouldn't know. I've never been there.
DP: Describe hell.
CD: Boston. They hate us there. When we walk in the ballpark, it's, "You suck, you suck, you suck." That's all we hear for four days straight.

RBI Efficiency

Steve Hirdt, executive vice president of the Elias Sports Bureau, writes an interesting article about Elias' attempt to measure a hitter's ability to cash in baserunners, while taking out the luck-based and team-dependent elements that have made the RBI a pariah stat among sabrmetricians. Hirdt begins by discussing some rudimentary methods to supplant RBI (in which Carlos was #1 on August 1), like RISP batting average (in which Carlos was #2 on August 1) or calculating the percentage of RISP driven in by each batter (in which Carlos was #1 on August 1).

Next, Hirdt devises a sophisticated and useful -- albeit difficult to calculate for the box-score reader -- method that he terms "RBI Efficiency" to evaluate the cashing-in ability of hitters. Using a matrix outlining the percentage of runners that the average hitter would drive in, based on the number of outs and base on which the runner was stationed, Elias created an "Expected RBI" statistic for each hitter -- after applying the formula to the number of times each hitter has batted in each of the respective base/out situtions.

The result? Carlos is still #1. Looking at his plate appearances, Carlos had an "Expected RBI" total of 54.0, and an actual total of 106 as of August 1 -- hence, a league-best +52.0 in RBI Efficiency. Albert Pujols (+45.4) and Barry Bonds (+35.7) have higher relative RBI Efficiency than RBI totals; they're #1 and #2 respectively in the NL, despite trailing Preston Wilson by a considerable margin in the counting statistic. Counterintuitively, Vernon Wells actually has more Expected RBI (63.7) than Delgado, despite not having a Vernon Wells-type hitter in front of him. Although he's #3 in the majors in RBI, Vernon checks in at only a seventh-best +30.3 in RBI Efficiency. Fascinating stuff.

Lost & Found

That's the title for the Doc Halladay feature, which essentially starts with the righty's demotion to A-ball after his 2000 big-league shelling, with many in baseball predicting that Roy would be relegated to spend his career on dusty roads, watching Major League on minor-league bus VCRs. Mel Queen, then working as an advance scout, was assigned to work with Halladay in Tennessee to work out his kinks. After consulting a sports psychologist, Queen decided that tough love and brutal honesty was required; Queen told Roy, "You're wasting talent, Doc...Unless we make changes -- and I mean drastic changes -- you're out of baseball in a year." A guy from the Oakland front office named J.P. Ricciardi scouted Halladay in 2000, and described his fastball as "straight as a string."

Queen changed Halladay's release point from "12:30" to "2:00" on a clock face. Tennessee's then-catcher, Josh Phelps, noticed immediately that Halladay's fastball began to sink and cut, even though Halladay was forbidden from pitching -- he was limited to playing catch and getting berated by Queen, who had taken on the persona of drill sergeant. Even though Doc's first curveballs from his new arm angle were limited to tosses from 10 feet away, Roy immediately appreciated that his curve was starting tom move horizontally, not just vertically. When Doc's first five minor-league starts yielded 42 K's and six walks, Queen knew he was ready. Derek Jeter is quoted as describing the new, improved Doc as "not fun to face."

The piece ends with a sidebar describing how the Devil Rays are trying similar reconstruction on Dewon Brazelton's delivery, in the hopes of rediscovering their own young righty's movement and confidence. The article concludes in maudlin -- but not unrealistic -- fashion: "...[Roy's] destiny may yet lead him down a back road to a small town. Cooperstown."
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_nelly - Sunday, August 10 2003 @ 05:46 PM EDT (#95066) #
here is (an excerpt from) the halladay article. i apologize in advance to those who are sensitive to copyright infringement :)

The arm angle felt awkward, but it didn't hurt; it was just a matter of developing muscle memory, reminding himself with each pitch to keep his arm lower. Queen showed him a new grip for a sinker. Now Halladay grabbed the ball across two seams, letting his thumb sit naturally, but as he released the ball, he tucked his thumb underneath it. "This is what will give you movement," Queen told him.

They tinkered with his curveball, throwing it from 10 feet at first, then longer, with Phelps retreating day by day. Scouts thought Halladay always had a good curveball, but because of his old arm angle, his curve spun straight down and tended to be an all-or-nothing pitch. If his trajectory was precise he could throw it for strikes, but too often he struggled to control it, and the curve would be useless. With the lower arm angle, Halladay's curve was more enticing to hitters, its movement more horizontal than vertical, tempting them before spinning away. Queen told Halladay that because his curve and fastball veered and sunk so much, all he needed to do was throw the ball to the middle of the strike zone, and the newfound movement would zip it to the corners. This took pressure off Halladay; his control didn't have to be perfect.
_mathesond - Sunday, August 10 2003 @ 05:47 PM EDT (#95067) #
Good stuff, Mike. And thanks for saving me $3.99!
Coach - Sunday, August 10 2003 @ 06:10 PM EDT (#95068) #
i apologize in advance to those who are sensitive to copyright infringement :)

Nelly, I just did something I have never done before, editing your comment down to two paragraphs. We are careful not to copy-and-paste entire articles. If it's available on a free Web site, linking to it is appropriate, but quoting the entire piece isn't right under any circumstances. I would hope that other sites give us the same courtesy for original work.
_nelly - Sunday, August 10 2003 @ 06:13 PM EDT (#95069) #
my sincere apologies, coach. i should have known better.
robertdudek - Sunday, August 10 2003 @ 08:00 PM EDT (#95070) #
"Counterintuitively, Vernon Wells actually has more Expected RBI (63.7) than Delgado, despite not having a Vernon Wells-type hitter in front of him. Although he's #3 in the majors in RBI, Vernon checks in at only a seventh-best +30.3 in RBI Efficiency. Fascinating stuff."

It's intuitive. Vernon bats behind two guys who don't hit a lot of homeruns and so he often bats with them on base. Because he's good at driving them in and doesn't walk a lot himself (not a criticism), he doesn't leave that many people on base for Carlos.
_Jabonoso - Sunday, August 10 2003 @ 10:51 PM EDT (#95071) #
Could be totally out of place, but i have the impression that Kielty has a very low RBI efficiency, how do they go to measure it?
Mike D - Sunday, August 10 2003 @ 11:22 PM EDT (#95072) #
It's complicated, Jabonoso. We'd have to know how many plate appearances Kielty's had in each situation.

As far as rough guesses go, he has an .828 OPS with runners in scoring position, which is good; however, that number strangely drops to .588 with RISP, two outs. Odds are, Kielty's frustrated you when an inning has come down to his at-bat with two outs. But his RBI Efficiency is likely in the plus range.
_Pfizer - Monday, August 11 2003 @ 12:43 PM EDT (#95073) #
It's funny, I was discussing some way to measure RBI-effectiveness as a "clean" stat over breakfast with some friends a month or so ago. We decided a matrix was the only way to go. I brought that up over at Clutch Hits and TangoTiger referred me to some Linear Weight dat he was playing with. I tried to work through it, but I'm not a statistics guy and was overwhelmed.

I'm glad to see smarter people than myself both had the same thoughts, and the intelligence to see it through.

And yay Carlos!
_George - Monday, August 11 2003 @ 02:39 PM EDT (#95074) #
Maybe this question is answered deep in the article, but I can't tell from what's here -- if a guy comes up with men on and walks, is it considered a "failed" RBI chance?
robertdudek - Monday, August 11 2003 @ 02:58 PM EDT (#95075) #
It should't be. Expected RBI should take into account the fact that walks rarely drive in runs.
Mike D - Monday, August 11 2003 @ 03:19 PM EDT (#95076) #
Elias says that it takes walks into account, but doesn't elaborate on how. I imagine that their formula addresses your concern, but I'm not sure just how.
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